Bottle Shock: Alan Rickman plays Steven Spurrier, the British wine authority who organized the 1976 blind tasting that had surprising results and made California wines a respected product.

SUMMER MOVIE GUIDE

By Jerry Shriver, USA TODAY

Lovers of New World wines and cinema will have another opportunity to revel in the retelling of the story of the famous 1976 "Judgment of Paris" wine tasting that helped put California wines on the world map.

Bottle Shock, starring Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman, opens Wednesday; another film, based on journalist George Taber's book Judgment of Paris, is in the works. Both films revolve around the story of a blind tasting staged for a panel of French judges in which Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignons from some of California's top producers were sampled alongside their French counterparts from Burgundy and Bordeaux.

In 1976, California wines carried little prestige outside America and were considered to be inferior to those from France. The startling results of the tasting helped change that perception forever as a Chardonnay from Napa's Château Montelena and a Cabernet from Napa's Stag's Leap Wine Cellars won their respective categories. The French have long questioned the scientific validity of the event, but it has hardly mattered: A Time magazine article spread word of the results, California wines exploded in prominence and popularity, and the tale now is retold by wine writers during every significant anniversary.

(And the fallout continues: Last month, Château Montelena announced that it had been bought — pending regulatory approval — by the esteemed Bordeaux winery Château Cos d'Estournel.)

As I revisited the topic after hearing about Bottle Shock, it occurred to me that the Paris tasting has now spawned a secondary legacy. In the decades that followed, California, and then Oregon and Washington state (and to a lesser extent, New York), took the lead in American fine-wine production. Their successes have more recently encouraged entrepreneurs in every other state to try to make wines that express their own unique climate and soil. Every state has a registered winery, and nearly half of the states are developing serious industries.

As a result, a new and different set of potentially surprising judgments plays out every year at the major international wine competitions staged in this country. The difference is that instead of "California vs. the Old World," the compelling scenario now is "which up-and-coming state will show that some of its wines can stand alongside those from the West Coast?" It's becoming increasingly common for some wines from some upstart state to make strong showings in the big contests by earning a unanimous gold medal or even a "best of class" or "best of show" award. Though a one-shot win by a lone winery doesn't say much about an entire state's industry, it does indicate potential.

One of the best places to look for Cinderella stories is at the Indy International Wine Competition in Indianapolis, which was held in June. It's one of the country's largest, in terms of number of entries (3,240 this year) and attracts a lot of wines from non-West Coast states. This year, 39 states (and 12 countries) were represented, and sure enough, there were a few breakthroughs:

•A 2007 Gewürztraminer from Penguin Bay Winery in New York's Finger Lakes region was named the best white wine in the competition. (This same wine earlier won a top award at the L.A. International Wine & Spirits Competition.)

•The non-vintage Wild River Rosé from Chateau St. Croix in Wisconsin was named best of show rosé wine.

•Bel Lago Vineyard and Winery from Michigan produced the best of show sparkling wine, called Leelanai Brillante.

Keep in mind that these competitions don't necessarily draw the very best wines from other countries, or even the West Coast. But with a field of 3,240 representative wines being graded by 75 judges, Indy offers a decent snapshot of the breadth and quality of winemaking, particularly in America.

If you can afford to take a road trip this summer, put some wineries from your region on your itinerary. You may be amply rewarded with a variety of distinctly delicious American flavors.

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